Big Beat Steve

This was out on two Prestige LPs back in the 80s. Haven't listened to them very often yet; IIRC the fidelity is just so-so but the music is fine and does have a lot of "blowing" atmosphere. If you like on-location recordings from that period, go grab it!

Snapped up an original of this one a couple of years ago on eBay and liked it a lot. Modernized 50s cool-school swing a bit like Al Cohn on alto, with maybe a hint of Lee Konitz thrown in (Dick Johnson is his own man, though, but this should broadly describe his stylistic position within the 50s jazz styles). Been a while since I listened to it, so thanks for the reminder!

No matter what his later recordings may have achieved, his definitive recording of NIGHT TRAIN will grant him a place in jazz and R&B history!

So this O'Donnell feller took his inspiration for this album from LEE DORSEY?? :rolleyes:

My DUAL turntable (bought new sometime in the 90s) has 33, 45 and 78 rpm (one of the last they made with 78 rpm) so playing them would not require much effort (except to change the stylus). But I don't get around to spinning them that often, and they days when I actively sought them out at garage sales and auctions really are more or less over. I have about 800 or 900 78s (mostly U.S. and European swing, bop, R&B, country/Western Swing, rock'n'roll/rockabilly, plus some assorted quantities of 40s and 50s pop), but the 78s that I tend to spin most often are late 40s/early 50s bop and R&B items on various indie labels that aren't easily available as reissues. Now how about another thread "What 16 RPM are you spinning right now?" :D That's where the question of the equipment to play them really becomes crucial. If I'd want to spin mine (one Prestige, one Vogue, so not exactly mvery many), I'd have to really pull out one of my portable 50s "Dansette"-type turntables.

Thanks for making this public! Nice to see one of the players of the Swing era still being around, especially since he outlived sooo many of subsequent generations of jazz musicians. Maybe someone really ought to seek him out and record his memoirs and reminiscences for posterity before it is too late and another link to the past is severed. BTW, among all the RIP threads of last year, the passing of another notable Swing-era jazzmen seemed to have gone largely unnoticed: Franz Jackson passed away the past year at 94. If I look at who else got an obit here, it certainly was NOT a matter of obscurity that this passing went largely unnoticed but really only a matter of awareness on the part of those who go for those obits. (As for my last statement, I stand corrected: Franz Jackson DID get an obit thread of his own - well deservedly)

My vote (maybe heresy to some around here ): Stan Kenton's version with vocals by June Christy (the flipside of "Fantasy" on Capitol). Probably not not a "favorite" version ("Willow" isn't one of the tunes I tend to think of in terms of "favorites") but certainly the one that's impressed me most (possibly because it was one of the first I was thoroughly exposed to).

A name that does ring a bell ever since I bought that Specialty "This Is How It All Began" compilation LP in the mid-70s (that introduced me to a lot of variants of post-war R&B - and paved the way for a LOT of further record purchases ). Like others here (and not being a gospel specialist) I wouldn not have imagined he was still around. Amazing! R.I.P.

Is there any legal way I can get a copy? Do you know anyone or place that will sell one? If you cannot get a copy of the 78rpm or 10in releases on Skylark via eBay or the like, try the other reissues. There is a late 50s compilation album on the Tampa label that reissued "Big Boy" and other former Skylark/Tampa tracks, and this compilation again has been re-reissued on another label in the 70s (with ghastly artwork). I have one of those reissue pressings; will seach for it later among my LPs to get the details.

That just about sums it up, although one might also add the following 'sentence': "These are "Live" performances some sound quality imperfections may exist". O.K., I agree with all these - but if you insist that "A Train" is incorrect (and not just sloppy) as the correct title is "Take The A Train" then you might also add that "In My Solitude" more commonly (FAR more commonly) goes under the title of "Solitude" only. @TTK - re- your last post: Open any newspaper or mag and you will see that this species is virtually extinct these days when it comes to printed media.

I admit I'm unfamiliar with the "Jazz Gráfico" book but it apparently covers a lot of ground covered elsewhere. However, for 10-inch and 78 rpm covers this one seems to be for you: In the Groove - Vintage Record Graphics 1940-1960, by Eric Kohler (Chronicle Books) Far from comprehensive but it complements the other record cover books named above as it puts the focus on earlier records and some artists overlooked elsewhere,e g. Jim Flora. And since Baker named it, I am slightly underwhelmed by the recent jazz record cover book issued by Taschen. I browsed through it extensively the other day in a book store but found that in the end it did not include all that much that had not yet been covered by Jazzical Moods, Jazz West Coast, California Cool, East Coasting and the Blue Note books when it comes to 50s/early 60s covers, and it definitely has WAAAY too much late 60s/70s covers with that weird psychedelic/flower power/pop art artwork. Pretty garish, some of them ... (but that's only my personal taste) Maybe that Japanese website with all those 78rpm/10in record cover scans ought to be made into a book??

Wow - I'd love a copy of that one. Have never seen it ! 'Unpredictable' is a pretty accurate description. Actually that's one of the very few "Jazz In Hollywood" series LPs on Liberty that I don't have. I'd like to listen to that one too but OTOH it has one side of instrumentals and one side of vocals and that bad, bad, bad review of the vocals in Down Beat really frightened me away. Even if I disregard the fact that the DB reviews aren't necessarily the final word I know my taste as far as MALE vocals in 50s jazz go, so I definitely would not be prepared to pay top money for such an item (and on eBay I would have had to shell out top money each time I bookmarked that one - at least way more that I'd have been prepared to spend). A candidate for a Fresh Sound reissue??

Well, I am happy to report that on Xmas evening both my wife and my 8-year old son sat through the background Xmas music of the entire two sides of the "Mr Santa's Boogie" LP on Savoy SJL 1157 without even attemting to protest at all (even through Charlie Parker's "White Christmas" version - not a bum track at all, of course, but something that takes some getting used to for non-bebop jazz ears ).

I have all five you mention (reissues, of course ). "Sincerely, Conti" was on Bethlehem too (BCP 1016), and "Conte Candoli Quartet" was Mode 109. "Rhythm Plus One" (EPIC LN 3297) isn't usually listed as a Conte Candoli LP as it is a vehicle for FOUR featured horn men (Candoli, Jimmy Cleveland, Seldon Powell, Gene Quill) on three selections each. BTW, any discography or "Goldmine's Price Guide to Collectible Jazz Albums" is your friend for questions like this.

O.K. then ... here's a big plug for the entire 50s JAZZ IN HOLLYWOOD series on Liberty! E.g. Buddy Childers (Sam Songs - LJH 6009, and Quartet - LJH 6013) Bob Enevoldsen (Smorgasbord) Virgil Gonsalves (Jazz in San Francisco) Dom Frontiere etc. etc. (including the items they took over from Nocturne) Yes, and I also like the jazz soundtrack of Hot Rod Rumble (1957).

I assume that Lionel Hampton's "Gin for Christmas" doesn't count, then?

Reading all this (I had not been aware of the earlier parts of this thread as this was before I got on board this forum) I awsume there isn't all that much that is totally new to the market? I.e. a lot of the Jubilee music on this set has been around elsewhere on other reissues before? (e.g. the International Sweethearts of Rhythm on their Rosetta release and Wilbert Baranco on the Hep LP?) And since Hindsight seems to beinvolved, how much of the music was lifted straight of their earlier "The Uncollected" series? Anybody has any clue on this? Thanks beforehand for filling me in. Re- Bubbles "The Stomach That Walks like a Man" Whitman, I agree that his emcee antics really are part of the fun of the entire procedings! :D

Very sensible attitude ...

Uh oh ... another unsung Swing era man. 96 years ... admittedly I had no idea he still was alive. Seems a fitting tribute that photos of Franz in action are now circulating a bit more widely on the net thanks to the Life online photo archives (see related threads, check out the Gjon Mili 1943 jam sessions).

Indeed!! And the Gjon Mili pics (p.ex. his jam session pics of 1943) are real gems. (Thank goodness they had not been "drigged"; as Chris A. would have said ) They could do with some additional musician identification/correction, though.

Check out the V.A. CD "ARKANSAS SHOUT" on Jazz Oracle BDW 8025 if you want more. :tup for a Blues version of Devilin Tune here too (with hopefully as little duplications as possible between the two sets).

I suppose you realize how much musc from past decades would have remained TOTALLY unreissued if this had ever been a valid yardstick? (That is, unless you are satisfied with a scant few major label reissues, because - all copyright issues aside - there must be a lot of labels where no session tapes are around anymore) Remember there are good and there are bad remasterings, even from vinyl, so you really can't generalize. I'd venture to say some 80s/90s needle drops are better than many 60s/70s "enhanced stereos" with pseudo echo etc. All in all I've never been disappointed with the Fresh Sound vinyl I've bought through the years (though I'll admit my hifi system is no high-end system). And the fact that they stuck to the original cover artwork is a HUGE bonus to the collector when compared to MANY other reissues of the past 30 years that came with UTTERLY UGLY, nondescript, totall out-of-tune "redesigned" (actually loused-up) "modernized" covers. And what's the key difference between reisued CDs or vinyl from vinyl? Isn't the fact that you use vinyl as the SOURCE the decisive factor? BTW, TTK: Do your reservations also apply to "non-Andorran" VSOP vinyl reissues? I doubt that all of them are remasters from the original tapes.

Just out of sheer curiosity: Are there plans to include ANY tracks from 78rpm, acetates or whatever, i.e. tracks that never ever have been reissued before anywhere, i.e. something that not even collectors with the most exhaustive collection of reissues imaginable could possibly possess? A sort of icing on the cake, so to speak ... That aside, I think the initial list that seems to be omitting a lot of the "usual suspects" would make for very interesting listening. Reissue projects that more and more fall back to the usual artists as they become more and more comprehensive aren't exactly thin on the ground (and this is where I found the debate in the original thread a bit wearying as everybody seemed to add more and more essentials). So an overview that in a way runs crosswise to the usual retrospectives and puts the emphasis on filling the gaps everybody else left open in their compilations (and programs tracks and artists together that aren't usually matched) would open up entirely new perspectives. Just my 2c

Yes, her vocals with Teddy Wilson are rather nice in her own way (like you said, who wants everybody to sound like Billie Holiday, and besides, Billie's had her share of clones through the decades anyway, e.g. Marilyn Moore or Madeleine Peyroux). But beware anyhow - some of her big band vocals are downright painful to listen to today. Nothing wrong technically with her singing but that kind of operatic aria vocalizing in front of a schmaltzy band certainyl is BADLY dated and even then certainly did nothing to uplift the "SWING" era.

What's amazing is the wide range of musicians who seem to have come and visited Nica. Not all young hard boppers, angry young rebels and young turks for modern jazz. Benny Winestone (p.273), for example, must be THE Benny Winestone who played in various British dance and swing bands in the 30s (see Albert McCarthy's "The Dance Band Era", p. 115) and who by the 60s must have been rather beyond his most active period.